Of course, this sort of news pleases me no end - whether it's 15% or 30%, it's clear that more and more Americans are leaving the clutches of religious delusion and moving over to reality. This is
excellent.
However, even a small number of fundamentalist religious fanatics are very,
very worrisome. And America has a very
large number of people who consider themselves Evangelical and/or Dominionist, they are getting very worried about what they perceive as a direct threat (in this, they may be correct) - and so their fear levels are going higher and higher every month.
Fear is the most powerful motivator for human beings - all other instincts come in secondary. They are scared, they are bunkering down, they are forming groups to influence politics in a big way. The Republican party is full of them - so is the military.
Just
one Dominionist , with a handful of medical radioactive material, dedicated to the cause and
full of fear can wreak havoc in this country - the amount of damage that 10's of millions of them can do is beyond my imagination.
So in my view, of course an increase in non-believers (although I think it's closer to 15% not 30%, but I can't prove it - I've known 'new age' types to check 'not religious' in survey's at work, and that's no better than checking protestant) is a great thing - but remember,
that means those who insist on a literal interpretation of the bible are getting more and more fearful....
That's a sobering thought.
Conflict - in my lifetime (I'm in my 50s) - is my real worry. Armed conflict is not an impossibility. And they have lots of money, resources...and guns.
